There’s another kind of orchestration happening in the backstage area. It has a rhythm of its own, conducted by the Stage Manager, and one never heard out front. I sit waiting in the wings during tech rehearsals and listen to the sounds around me – music and sound effects, the gentle rumble of stage machinery,
Continue reading ...Yesterday we said goodbye to Rehearsal Room 1 at Queensland Theatre Company. It’s been our cosy playroom since just after Christmas when we came together to begin work on QUARTET. It’s into the Playhouse at QPAC tomorrow and the start of tech week. This means getting used to a new space; those green (Act 1) and
Continue reading ...Waking early today into the light in the sky. It’s high summer and my diurnal rhythms seem to be in sync with the bigger picture. Eyes open, into awareness, and the low-level adrenaline that’s come to be part of my life, kicks into play. I’m grateful for a day off for the light domestic duties, a spot of gardening, and
Continue reading ...I heard a great interview this morning on ABC612 Brisbane with Sam Strong, the ‘newish’ (since last November) Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre Company. Among other things, Sam sketched out some of his ideas to make QTC a national theatre leader. Anyway, it was exciting and refreshing to hear Sam hint at his plans and talk up his
Continue reading ...Rehearsal days are flying by – we’re nearing the end of Week 2 – and the work on the floor this week, blocking scenes and interrogating action through character, is intense and tiring. This is where the richness of a text becomes apparent, but it takes its toll. The tiredness only becomes apparent at day’s end when,
Continue reading ...Week 2 begins with no calls in the rehearsal room for me today. Work on the role doesn’t stop, of course; there’s homework to do – always homework when becoming absorbed in preparing a performance. This afternoon I watched an extraordinarily moving documentary on Casa di Riposa – a home in Milan – endowed by the great
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The last time I turned up to work on a Saturday morning was back in high school when I did a weekly pocket-money stint at Coles in my hometown. This week has been broken a bit by public holidays, and so we finished the first of what constituted the rehearsal week on Saturday; it felt
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